The present invention is directed to a patterned knitted fabric, as well as a process and a warp knitting machine for the production thereof.
Known knitted can provide a very surface-stable fabric utilizing weft threads together with chain stitches. Such fabric however cannot be surface patterned. If one utilizes another stitch formation such as tricot, cloth, atlas, and their combinations one already obtains, even without the weft threads, a ground fabric which hangs together. The weft threads therefore serve substantially to provide transverse stability, however one has to take into consideration a disturbing lateral extendability.
The maximum transverse and longitudinal stability is obtained when the weft threads are bound in with chain threads. This longitudinal stability however is lost when the warp threads, for reasons of patterning, are laid in other stitch forms for example, tricot, cloth, atlas or combinations thereof since, the diagonally running stitch segments tend to weaken in the longitudinal direction.
An object of the present invention is to provide a patterned fabric, formed by utilizing warp threads, which nevertheless, has good surface stability.